Funk and Disco
The most important harmonic property of funk is that there is almost no harmony. A great many classic funk records sit on one chord, or two that swing back and forth, because the composition is the groove.
- 1 chord
- the One
- sixteenth grid
In which styles
- Funk
- Disco
- Afrobeat
- House
In short
In nearly all Western popular music the centre of gravity is the backbeat, the snare on two and four. Funk moves it to beat one. Everything lands on the One, the bar resets there, and every part in the arrangement is positioned relative to that hit.
Physical and relentless. When the harmony refuses to move, attention drops into the rhythm, which is exactly where the style wants it.
How the style works
Melody is subordinate. The vocal is often short, endlessly repeated, inside a small range, and made up in good part of shouts and speech-like phrases. The interest is in placement rather than in pitch.
Where you run into this
- A track that stays on one chord for four minutes and never gets boring
- A guitar part that is almost entirely muted sixteenths
- A bass line that is the melody of the song
What you leave out
Chords that go somewhere. A ii V I every two bars destroys a funk groove instantly: as soon as the listener notices the harmony telling a story, attention leaves the rhythm and it becomes soul or jazz.
Keep going
Everything in styles
- Funk and Disco
- Soul and R&B
- Reggaeton and Afrobeats
- Blues